SPONSORED COPY
Jesal Mistry head of DC investments, L&G sets out the details of the insurer’s private markets offering
As a defined contribution (DC) pension fund provider, we aim to help our clients invest for the best possible outcomes. In our view, this means not only finding great investment opportunities, but also ensuring that these are accessible to schemes and members.
Much has been said over the past several years about the potential benefits of private market investments, such as portfolio diversification and greater, long-term net of fees returns. Indeed, at Legal & General we have been investing in private markets for over 40 years and we believe they can be a valuable part of a portfolio. Defined benefit schemes (DB) have been taking advantage of these opportunities for decades. However, largely for operational reasons, up until recently, DC schemes have generally lacked access to them.
With the advent of the Long-Term Assets Fund (LTAF), private market investing has been opening up to more DC members. But, while LTAFs have certainly addressed some of the challenges faced by DC schemes, we believe there are still obstacles to making these investments truly accessible to DC. Recognising this and being in a position to address these difficulties with some of our existing strategies and expertise, we have structured the new L&G Private Markets Access Fund specifically to help mitigate against some of the
challenges with liquidity, operations, valuations and taxation.
Enabling liquidity
DC schemes have continuous ebbs and flows of capital, so as well as the operational need for daily valuations, they require daily dealing. This can sometimes be problematic for the managers of a stand-alone LTAF who, to fund standard daily liquidity demands, may have to make decisions about which private market assets to dispose of, or simply hold a large allocation of cash within the fund. This can mean that investors’ capital isn’t working as hard as it could be.
We’ve addressed this by building our solution a little differently. We are offering an investment-focused DC solution providing total portfolio management within a unit-linked PMC fund, which offers daily dealing. Our LTAF, which accesses a diverse range of private market assets, sits inside the PMC fund. We also hold complementary public market investments within the PMC, but separately from the LTAF. These easily-traded assets enable us to satisfy ‘noisy’ daily dealing requirements driven by payroll and rebalancing, whilst not needing to hold large quantities of cash or make a forced sale of private market assets.
Further, one of the concerns some DC clients have is how they will divest in the event of, for example, a large asset allocation switch. In this case, we have a nine-month notice period and have structured the portfolio so that sufficient private market assets can be liquidated in this time frame.
Operations and valuation
DC platforms are accustomed to daily liquidity requirements. This means that LTAFs which don’t provide such a facility will require infrastructure and administration changes to be made to the platforms before they can be placed on them. As the L&G Private Markets Access Fund is a PMC structure, many of which we already have on DC platforms, this should make for a smoother transition when adding the fund to platforms.
As already mentioned, there is a need for daily valuations. Individual members need to be able to see their up-to-date valuations and not stale pricing. The underlying LTAF is daily priced, therefore net asset value (NAV) updates from any private markets funds are fed through to it on a timely basis. We are also able to fair-value adjust third-party fund pricing, and we have put in place valuation checks, as well as regular formal reviews through the relevant internal oversight functions.
Tax implications
Our unit-linked life fund structure provides a range of well-established tax benefits to UK DC investors. The LTAF will be structured as an Authorised Corporate Scheme (ACS), therefore allowing efficiencies from a tax perspective to flow through while preventing unrecoverable corporate taxes from accruing within it.
Conclusion
There are many reasons to use L&G for private markets investing, not least our size, scale and experience. However, without the requisite ability to invest and divest easily and efficiently, the benefits are, we believe, somewhat mitigated. In our view, this new, innovative structure is a critical milestone in the evolution and democratisation of the private markets asset class.
NHS to offer workplace-based mid-life MOTs
The government has said the NHS will move its mid-life health MOTs from GP offices to the workplace in a bid to prevent heart disease, diabetes and strokes.
Under plans announced by the new government, and detailed in The Times, more than 130,000 middle-aged workers will be offered a free health check-up through their employer in the next six months.
These check-ups will be provided by GPs, nurses and occupational health officers — rather than through any private healthcare or insurance arrangements offered by the employer.
These midlife MOTs are already available to the over 40s through GP surgeries, but there are concerns about low take up. It is hoped that offering them in the workplace will mean more people get their blood pressure and cholesterol measured, as well as being weighed, to help identify those at risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and put preventative steps in place.
The scheme is backed with £7m of government funding and will initially target male-dominated industries. Jaguar Land Rover is one of the first employers to confirmed it will offer these checks to employees at its main base.
This is part of Labour’s stated plans to focus on prevention in healthcare, to help relieve demand on the NHS while also addressing the problem of low productivity and absenteeism in the workplace – with a view to boosting economic growth.
Andrew Gwynne, minister for public health and prevention says: “We know so many deadly diseases can be avoided if we seek help in enough time. That’s why we’re working to improve access to treatment while also taking steps to address the preventable causes of cardiovascular disease.”
Gwynne emphasised that the new workplace health programme represents a crucial shift towards community-focused healthcare and prioritising prevention over treatment – to help reduce strain on the NHS and enable more people to live healthier, longer lives.
Group Risk Development (Grid) spokesperson Katharine Moxham says: “This initiative is a clear indication of intent to prevent further growth in the number of working age people who are economically inactive due to long-term illness. It also signals that the new administration understands the impact of prevention and early diagnosis and is prepared to act.
“The role of the workplace in health and wellbeing is crucial and many employers are ahead of the state on this issue and already facilitate access to such checks, often via another benefit purchase such as PMI or a group risk product. Employers would be well-advised to check out what treasures are embedded within their employee benefits package already as these are already available, staffed and ready to go now.”